Games briefing

Squash: Nicol starts campaign with a stroll

Peter Nicol, the defending champion, made short work of his Bermudan opponent as he opened his defence of the singles title. The London-based Scot, who switched his allegiance to England last year, cruised into the last 16 with a 9-1 9-0 9-0 demolition of Nicholas Kyme, which took less than 19 minutes. "That was fantastic – I loved every second of it," the top seed and world No 1 said. Nicol's opponent today will be the ninth-seeded Australian Anthony Ricketts. Chris Walker breezed through his second-round match 9-2 9-1 9-0 against Guernsey's Gareth Webber, but Scotland's Neil Frankland bowed out as expected against the sixth seed Beng Hee Ong of Malaysia, although he did win a game before surrendering 9-3 9-4 1-9 9-3. There was better luck for the Scots in the women's competition as 10th seed Pamela Nimmo opened with a routine 9-1 9-0 9-0 success against Naluge Guy of Papua New Guinea.

Cycling: Evans' commitment rewarded

Cadel Evans, the former double World Cup mountain biking champion, led an Australian clean sweep of the medals in themen's individual time trial. Evans, who finished 14th in this year's Giro d'Italia, powered along the 46.8km course around Rivington in 1hr 0min 53.50sec. The Australian said he had been very motivated to ride for his national team, despite being based in Europe. "For me personally the Commonwealth Games is very important. My team couldn't understand why I was motivated to ride in the Games but now they are quite happy," he said. Evans's Australian team-mate Michael Rogers took the silver in 1min 56.86sec behind while Nathan O'Neill produced an inspired final burst to pip the defending champion, Eric Wohlberg of Canada, for the bronze, 2:27.19 behind the winner.

Netball: New Zealand's tale of the century

New Zealand improved on its own Commonwealth Games scoring record by thrashing Canada 101-17 in its opening game. Four years ago the best score best was New Zealand's 94-21 win over Wales and its 92-16 win over Sri Lanka when netball debuted in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. After piling on the points in the group phase four years ago, the New Zealanders lost the gold medal match to Australia. "There were still a few mistakes that a coach doesn't like but I think there was real enjoyment of playing together out there and some really great flair," New Zealand's coach, Ruth Aitken, said.

Table tennis: England build on what Katy did

Katy Parker, the daughter of Jill Hammersley, the former European champion, and an ex-England international Don Parker, helped to steer England into the quarter-finals of the women's team event. England's leading junior defeated Lee Fong Beh, of Malaysia, in four sets after losing the first. The 17-year-old's victory put England 2-1 ahead and Nicola Deaton wrapped the match up with her second victory of the day. Deaton battled back to defeat Lee Wei Beh in a thrilling five-set match. The national champion lost the first two games, only to rally when the pressure was on to win the next three and the match.

Village News: Can you help? We need a tractor

It is not a shock to discover that Microsoft's WebNest internet link in the Athletes Village has been used for some unusual searches, but the support staff were surprised to be asked by the Kenyan team to help investigate the possibility of buying a tractor online. After being pointed in the right direction, the Kenyans were last seen happily ploughing their way through a list of agricultural sites in search of the latest in tractor technology. That request made the Nigerian swimming team's requirements seem normal. They wanted swimming trunks. It was not that they did not have any, it was just that having arrived at the Aquatics Centre, they had seen rivals in some natty, streamlined numbers and they wanted some themselves.